What Is Predestination? (Crucial Questions)

by R.C. Sproul

God’s general divine superintendence, His providence over the universe, or His governance over natural laws.

With respect to salvation, the doctrine of predestination does not include the concept that every detail of our lives is foreordained and predestined by God. Rather, this doctrine deals with our ultimate destiny.

Prescience is simply a synonym for foreknowledge. The prescient view of predestination holds that God, from all eternity, looks down the corridors of history and knows in advance who will and will not respond positively to the invitation of Christ and His gospel.

In this case with Romans 8, it safe to assume that there is a priority in the list, particularly if we go to the end of the list of events described here and work backward. The last item mentioned is “glorification.” In terms of working out our salvation, we know from other passages of Scripture that the sequential steps are faith, justification, sanctification, and glorification. This order cannot be rearranged.

Obviously, foreknowledge must be first in any succession of the decrees of God, since He doesn’t decree anything for anyone of whom He knows nothing.

Someone once noted, “All people are by nature Pelagian.” By this, he meant that people naturally believe that man is not fundamentally enslaved by sin as a result of the fall of Adam, and that they still have the power in their fallen natures (if they believe they’re fallen at all) to incline themselves toward faith and make a decision for Christ.

Paul is reminding his listeners about the history of Israel. Not everyone who was a physical child of Abraham was chosen by God to receive the blessing. Ishmael was born of Abraham, but he did not receive the blessing— Isaac did.

Romans 9:10–11: “And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue.” Paul is clearly saying here that something happened before the children were born, before they had done any good or evil. And then he states the purpose: “in order that God’s purpose of election might continue.”

The prescient view argues that God looked down the corridors of time before Esau and Jacob were born, and on the basis of knowing how they would behave, He chose Jacob and not Esau.

It’s fascinating to note that God didn’t just distinguish between two different people, cultures, lands, and religions; He distinguished between sons of the same father in the same family.

to any who do not at this moment have faith in Jesus Christ, there is no reason whatsoever to assume you are not elect. Every person who has ever come to faith in Christ was at one time an unbeliever. You may very well be numbered among the elect but have not yet realized your election.

When Paul asks, “Is there injustice on God’s part?” the answer is, “By no means!” (v. 14). Yet what if we ask the question somewhat differently: Is there nonjustice on God’s part? The answer to that question is yes. There is nonjustice in God, though there is not injustice in Him.

That is, the elect receive the grace of God, and the nonelect receive the justice of God.

If God looked at a world filled with innocent people and decided to save some and damn others, there would be injustice on God’s part, but only once in all of history has God punished an innocent man. But even here we need a qualification. That punishment occurred only after the innocent man willingly, for the sake of the elect, assumed the culpability of the sin of His people. When our sins were transferred to Jesus, before the bar of God’s justice, Jesus was no longer innocent. He was innocent in and of Himself, but by imputation, as our representative, He was regarded as sin (see 2 Cor. 5:21).

mercy that is required is not mercy. If we think that God owes us grace, we’ve stopped thinking about grace and have started thinking about justice. The worst thing that could happen to us is for us to ask God for justice.

It should not be hard for us to imagine that what is pleasing to God is always good, that His purposes are always good, and that His reasons for granting mercy to some and not to others have to be good.

The first metaphor is that of a drowning person. He can’t swim, and he is going under. Even his head is submerged below the waves, and the only thing left above the surface of the water is his hand. He cannot possibly save himself from drowning unless someone throws him a life preserver. Someone on shore then throws that life preserver exactly where the man needs to have it thrown, right up against his hand. The person on the shore has done everything that he can do to save the drowning man, but the drowning man must either grab hold of the life preserver or let it pass by.

The other metaphor frequently used is that of a dying person with an incurable, fatal disease. The person is in his last stages of life. A doctor comes into the room with the only possible medicine to save this man from dying. The doctor pours the medicine on the spoon and reaches the spoon to the dying man’s lips. All he must do is open his lips and receive the medicine that will restore him to fullness of health.

To what degree have we been corrupted in our human nature? Augustine concluded that the fall of mankind is so great that even though we still are able to make choices, all of our choices proceed from a heart that is in bondage to sin, leaving us in a state of moral inability to choose what pleases God.

God Himself supplies the condition necessary for the sinner to respond.

One of the most controversial texts on this topic appears in John 6:44. Jesus says: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.” The phrase “no one” is a universal negative proposition. It says something negative about all people: “no one” means “no person whatsoever.” The next word is the most crucial: “can.” Jesus doesn’t say that no one does come or no one will come. He says that no one can come.

For us to be saved, God must first regenerate us. Regeneration is the raising to new spiritual life; it is a change in the disposition of hearts. Before regeneration, we don’t want anything to do with Christ; afterward, we love Him. God the Holy Spirit creates that love in our hearts. The Spirit makes us willing, so that we then choose Christ, and we choose Christ because we want Christ.

Double predestination is simply this: the elect receive mercy and the reprobate receive justice, but no one receives injustice.

as Calvin remarked, “Where God closes His holy mouth, I will desist from inquiry.”

During the First Great Awakening—in which God richly poured out His Holy Spirit, particularly on New England—three chief preachers were used of God as instruments of evangelism. One of them, John Wesley, did not embrace the Augustinian view of election unto salvation, but the other two, George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards, wholeheartedly embraced it.